Indianapolis-based apartment developer Milhaus started building an apartment project in Manatee County, Florida, under the state’s Live Local Act after securing its funding earlier this year.

It may be one of the few to be built in the county, next to Sarasota, under the law, until lawsuits over a major increase in impact fees are resolved.

Manatee has quickly emerged as a broader litmus test of how municipalities continue to hinder housing development, even as laws change to encourage more housing. Fights over Live Local projects continue.

In Manatee County, the fight isn’t about the Live Local Act, but a law enacted last year to limit impact fees in hurricane-stricken areas.

County officials raised fees dramatically last year for all development, invoking the “extraordinary circumstances” exception under Manatee County’s 2021 impact fee law. They said the increase would pay for the infrastructure needed to handle growth. Officials made the move despite Senate Bill 180 freezing major fee increases through October 2027.

Housing advocates and developers say the fees offset the financial incentives that make Live Local projects attractive, including workforce housing.

Developers sued the county over the fees. The county joined a lawsuit against the state over last year’s bill.

While that dispute unfolded, state lawmakers closed more loopholes in the 2023 Live Local law that preempted local zoning. Live Local is now in its 4.0 version.

The math behind the increase

Manatee County commissioners raised impact fees to the state maximum on June 5, 2025. The vote was unanimous, 6-0, with one commissioner absent earlier in the process.

Fees jumped from roughly $13,442 to $16,328 per unit. Under the new schedule, some categories now reach $33,875 per unit, an increase of 69% to 169% depending on housing type.

Consultant Benesch argued 2015-based rates left millions of dollars uncollected. Commissioners framed the increase as growth paying for itself, not as housing policy.

The new rates took effect in early September last year. Developers who filed permits by Sept. 4 locked in the old, lower fees. Anyone filing after that date absorbed the full increase.

Legal fights add uncertainty

Developers sued the county, arguing the fee hike violates SB 180. That law bars more burdensome development rules in hurricane-affected areas for roughly two years.

Florida’s Department of Commerce sent a warning letter last August. Secretary Alex Kelly said the fee increase potentially violated SB 180. The state also withheld $3 million tied to the dispute.

Manatee County pushed back. Commissioners voted in July 2025 to fight SB 180 directly, directing lobbyists to seek its repeal. The county also joined a separate lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality.

Beginning with Live Local

Under Live Local, housing developments bypass zoning hearings. The county’s own resolution describes Live Local procedures as supporting its affordable housing goals.

Milhaus entered with the county’s first Live Local project. A couple of others are now in the pipeline. The process has been a learning curve for everyone involved.

“We took the brunt of a learning curve,” Brad Vogelsmeier, Milhaus’s vice president of development, told HousingWire TBD.

Officials were new to Live Local. They were still figuring out, for example, what belongs in a land use restriction agreement that locks in affordability for a set period.

“We’re not technically supposed to go through public vote council approval,” Vogelsmeier said. “That was probably the highest barrier.”

Milhaus now has 231 units under construction, with completion targeted for November 2027.

Atlanta-based Rangewater Development has a 300-unit Live Local project underway in Manatee after winning approval earlier this year.

What comes next

Future Live Local projects in Manatee will likely sit on the shelf now that fees are high enough to erase much of their advantage.

Manatee is still trying to recover the nearly $3 million in withheld state funds. Until a court rules or the fee schedule changes, developers face a math problem.

“LLA projects will likely become less feasible if the county wins the case, but so will all development,” Kody Glazer, Florida Housing Coalition’s chief legal and policy director, told HousingWire TBD.